Spy School King's Cage (Completed)

Clues to follow

Ben's POV

"This way, fast," Catherine said, running up the stairs. "Are they still playing?"

"Probably," I replied, totally out of breath. It was hard to keep up with her. She burst into the room and seeing her expression, everyone stood up immediately.

"What's wrong?" Jamie asked.

Catherine pulled the piece of paper out and showed it to everyone. Mike's mouth fell open and Zoe covered hers with her mouth in shock.

"Isn't Daniel one of Joshua Hallal's aliases or something like that?" Mike asked.

I stared at Mike. "How do you know?" I asked, shocked.

He pointed to the email address. "JH. Joshua Hallal."

I frowned, realizing that it was obvious and I had missed such an important and simple thing. "Oh."

Catherine folded the piece of paper. "We need to act fast. Joshua Hallal is working with the king, they've holed Erica up somewhere and are planning to strike any moment. We need to be alert."

Cynthia was awfully quiet. I glanced her way and noticed that she was deep in thought.

"What are you thinking about?' I asked her. She snapped back to reality and took a deep breath.

"We've been out of their business for so long, apparently protecting them. But this whole time, they've been in touch with SPYDER. What if it's an alibi?"

"For what?" Zoe asked.

Before Cynthia had a chance to answer, Catherine jumped in with a question. "What makes you say 'they'?"

"What do you mean?" Jamie began, but Cynthia's eyes were glowing.

"I was hoping you'd grasp that, Ms. Hale," she spoke, then turned to the rest of us. "I'm saying that even the Queen herself might be in this. Maybe even Piper. But we don't know for sure."

I smiled, fully grasping what she was trying to say. Jamie also seemed to have caught on, and he stepped forward.

"I get what you're trying to say, Cynthia," he said. "Is this about the paper thing?"

She nodded. Looking at all of our puzzled faces, she shared a look of understanding with Jamie before she spoke. "Remember when we were eating and the queen abruptly left?"

We all nodded.

"She had this piece of paper in her hand. I'm 95% sure it's this one," she explained, gesturing to the email in Catherine's hand. "It's this email, Ms. Hale."

"How are you so sure?" Catherine asked, then added, "please, call me Catherine."

Cynthia smiled playfully, then stretched her palm out. Catherine handed her the paper and she folded it in half, then walked over to the dresser in her room and placed it down. We all gathered around her to see what she was getting at.

"I was talking to Piper the other day, and she was telling me how there was an incident with the paper cutter in her dad's office and she had accidentally snipped off a tiny part of a paper belonging to her dad in the process of cutting something for herself," Cynthia explained.

Then she focused on the folded sheet. "When folded, you can clearly notice the difference. The part that is cut is obvious. There's a difference."

Mike gasped, "Holy cow, you're right!"

Zoe nodded. "None of us noticed that."

"I imagine this paper was folded when you found it atop the desk," Cynthia said, directing her words at Catherine and me. I nodded, recollecting the brief view.

"That's awesome!" Catherine said. Excellent thinking, kids."

That was exactly the kind of thinking you needed to get into Spy School.

"Let's go," Catherine said, and I faced her.

"Where?" I asked.

"Where else?" she asked. "To confront the king."

I was taken aback. "Wait-what?!"

"Yeah, I guess that's the best option," Jamie said. "I mean, what other choice do we have? We have evidence. SPYDER's with them."
"I don't see any harm in doing so," Zoe added.

Mike only looked at me curiously. "Hold up. You're onto something, aren't you? I know that look on your face. I do."

I shook my head. "I'm just saying that it might be a little too soon. We only have one email. Confrontation seems like a last resort to me."

"Still," Catherine insisted, "who knows what they're doing to Erica? Where is she? There are so many unanswered questions."

The mention of Erica forced me to give it a second thought. I turned to Cynthia and asked, "Where's Piper?"

Cynthia shrugged. "She was playing cards with us, and then she got a text from her mom saying that they needed to have a talk about something. She left."

"Could it be..." Mike started, but Zoe shook her head.

"It can't be. Why would she tell us where she was going?" she countered.

Jamie shrugged. "She could have been lying."

"She wasn't," Cynthia said. "She was sitting right next to me, and I saw her phone ping with a text. I even read it."

"It's safe to have a doubt," I concluded, then looked to Catherine. She nodded.

"Alright then, it's settled," she spoke. "I'll go confront the king. In case something happens, I need you five to be ready to take on some bodyguards, though I don't mind taking them down myself. Hide and stay out of sight, but keep your eyes and ears open. I'm going to act like I have no clue as to what on earth the paper is saying, alright?"

We all nodded. She smiled, placed a single finger to her lips and walked out of the room.

We walked up the stairs to the next floor, and then around the corner to yet another hallway. From outside, it looked like a small mansion, but inside, it was almost as big as Orion's home. For a moment Catherine thought she was lost, and turned around, then shook her head and continued to walk down the hallway.

"There," I whispered. "He's coming."

Sure enough, the king was walking down the hallway, followed by two men I assumed were bodyguards.

Catherine stole a glance at us, then made her way to the king.

I could only hope that nothing would go wrong.

I'm sorry I haven't been updating like I'm supposed to. Online school's taking up a lot of my time and I try my best to be on Wattpad, as it is my only hope for coping up with boredom of these strange times.

Anyways, I also said I'll double update if I get 60+ followers. I have 60+ followers, though a double update won't be possible today. I will hopefully post another chapter tomorrow, so yeah. Anyways, have a wonderful day!!!!